Breakaway Dems donate mystery $150K

After the elections are held in November, the breakaway, five-member Independent Democratic Conference has pledged to form a new governing coalition in Albany with New York Senate Democrats. That's on the condition, however, that the two factions collectively have the 32 votes needed to form a majority. If Republicans win a majority, all bets seem to be off.

Now a mysterious $150,000 donation by the IDC's so-called super PAC—recently made to another outside group, run by the League of Conservation Voters—raises questions about whether the IDC is quietly trying to help a Republican senator in Western New York defeat a Democrat.

As Crain'sreported earlier this week, the League of Conservation Voters has adopted a policy this year of working unusually closely with deep-pocketed interests, which don't necessarily have environmental causes at the top of their agendas.

The policy has allowed the League to take big money from both sides battling for control of the state Senate and spend it on candidates it supports but who may be on opposite sides of the Senate fight. The spending, as disclosed on campaign ads, will be seen by voters as coming not from its original sources but from the well-respected, nonpartisan environmental group. Teachers unions, which strongly support Democratic control of the state Senate, have given the League $90,000, while a major real estate developer spending heavily for Republican control has pitched in $100,000 for the green group. The arrangement works, as League spokesman Dan Hendrick explained earlier this week, because the League is directing the donations to races where the particular donors and the League support the same candidate.

In this way, the real estate money (as well as a $350,000 gift from ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg) is going to help Western New York Republican state Sen. Mark Grisanti, while the union funds are going to help two Democratic candidates the League supports, state Sen. Ted O’Brien and Adrienne Esposito.

On Oct. 7, newly released records show, the Independent Democratic Conference's outside spending group, the IDC Initiative, gave $150,000 to the League of Conservation Voters. Mr. Hendrick was less forthcoming about the purpose of the IDC gift than about the other reported donations.

In late September, IDC leader (and Senate co-leader) Jeffrey Klein met with Mr. Grisanti, fueling speculation that the latter could join the IDC after the election. Mr. Grisanti badly lost a Republican primary in September, but continues to run on the Independence Party line in the general election.

Mr. Hendrick declined Thursday evening to say where exactly the IDC's donation would be spent—notably whether it was going to help Mr. Grisanti.

"What I can say is that we are pleased that a wide range of individuals and political action committees from across the political spectrum recognize the importance of communicating environmental values to voters in this election cycle," Mr. Hendrick said via email. "We are grateful to have their support in our efforts to elect a pro-environment majority to the state Senate."

If the IDC's money were supporting Mr. Grisanti, that would likely not sit well with Senate Democrats, who have their own viable candidate in the race, Marc Panepinto. Kevin Stocker, the Republican primary victor, is also on the ballot, as is a candidate from the Conservative Party.

The political operative running the IDC Initiative, David Keisman, did not release a comment for this story Friday. An IDC spokesman did not return an email.

It would seem unlikely that the IDC's donation was meant to help the Democratic Senate contenders, given the longtime enmity and power struggle between the factions. It's possible the donation wasn’t earmarked for any specific purpose. The League spent $45,000 to help IDC member and Queens state Sen. Tony Avella win his close September primary against former city Comptroller John Liu, so the $150,000 IDC gift could be a thank-you of sorts.

Still, the majority of the League of Conservation Voters' spending on the general election has been for the Republican, Mr. Grisanti. Through Friday, the league had spent $112,000 supporting the two Democratic Senate candidates it's backing (or $32,000 more than what's been donated by the teachers' unions), while it's spent $494,000 helping Mr. Grisanti.

The five-member IDC split from the Senate Democrats following the 2010 elections, when the party lost its brief and turbulent majority to the Republicans. Following the 2012 elections, the IDC formed a governing coalition with Republicans, despite Democrats outnumbering the GOP in the chamber.

But facing the threat of primaries and a union revolt, the IDC agreed earlier this year to form a coalition with Democrats if they win enough seats between them to hold a collective majority.

The Daily Newsreported this summer, however, that two Senate Democrats' support of Mr. Klein’s primary challenger, Oliver Koppell, had endangered the deal. Mr. Klein went on to handily defeat Mr. Koppell.

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